And Now For Something Completely Different: Another Firewater Found Poem

A while back, just for kicks, I used the words of Ross Macdonald, in his novel Meet Me at the Morgue, to compose a poem. Macdonald’s words, all of them, assembled into a different form. I learned that there is a name for this type of thing, and it’s not plagiarism. It’s called found poetry, […]

More Facts About Words and Phrases Learned While Looking Up Other Things

As always, I give all credit for the idea of this post to the late journalist Sydney J. Harris, who would occasionally include something he called “Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things” in his syndicated column. This is a post about words and phrases. As a writer, these are my building blocks, so […]

10-List: Quotidian Quotes, Part Deux (Firewater’s List of Everyday Wisdom)

More commonplace wisdom for those of you open to advice during your personal pursuit of happiness. I’m not claiming that all of these are original thoughts. I’m just claiming to have included them in a 10-List. And, you can quote me on that. The video rental places may have all closed, but this advice […]

10-List: Quotidian Quotes (Firewater’s List of Everyday Wisdom)

“Quotidian” is a highly unusual word that means “everyday” or “ordinary.” Which I think is ironic. I’m not claiming that the following are original words of wisdom at all. However, I think each one offers wise advice, and since I can’t find out the original author for any of them, they might as well belong […]

Facts About Words and Phrases Learned While Looking Up Other Things

Let’s Agree to Disagree

A conversation I may have had . . . “Let’s just agree to disagree,” Steve said. I shook my head. I’m certain my expression showed my disgust. “What?” Steve said. “What’s up with that look?” “‘Let’s just agree to disagree,’” I repeated. “When someone says that, what they mean is ‘I’m right, you’re wrong, and […]

Stranger Fonts (a minor digression about typeface design)

On television, it is popular to characterize nerds as people who dedicate too much time to minutiae. I haven’t watched Big Bang Theory in a couple of seasons, but I remember that Sheldon hosted a web series about flags. And on The Middle (a show I still watch, which is completing its final season […]

Doozy

I like words. Words are how we communicate. And they are the closest we have to magic. If you record your thoughts in the form of words, they will live on after your body is dead. That’s magic. I used the word “doozy” in a review I wrote recently. It’s a word that I was […]

Rhymes with Norange

Norange? I’m either going to believe everything I read on the Internet—a dangerous proposition, if ever there was one—or I’m going to doubt the veracity of everything I hear, read, and/or see. Experience is the greatest teacher, and it has instructed me that the latter path is the most prudent. I read that the humble […]

Time’s Up

Psalms 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Job 14 Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. . . Man’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. It’s not my intention to preach. […]

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